Legal History Commons^™

Roman Slave Law: An Anglo-American Perspective, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

When one looks at Roman slave law from an Anglo-American perspective, what is striking is the apparent disinterest or lack of concern in the subject on the part of the state and the corresponding freedom of action allowed to slave owners. My claim is not that there was little law--indeed there was a great deal--but that the state did not get overly involved in laying down what owners could do with their slaves. For instance, though law decreed the methods by which slaves could be freed, the state imposed very few restrictions on manumission. This is all the more striking …

Thinking Property At Rome, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

It is a commonplace among writers on slavery that there is an inherent contradiction or a necessary confusion in regarding slaves as both human beings and things. In law there is no such contradiction or confusion. Slaves are both property and human beings. Their humanity is not denied but (in general) they are refused legal personality, a very different matter.

Things as property may be classed in various ways, and the classification may then have an impact on owners' rights and duties. A thing may be corporeal or incorporeal, immoveable or moveable. Some moveables may be classed as res se …

Seventeenth-Century Jurists, Roman Law, And The Law Of Slavery, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

Issues of slavery and slave law were of considerable theoretical interest to continental European jurists in the seventeenth century. They lived in a different world from American colonists of European descent because they had no direct experience of slave holding and no immediate financial involvement. Their interest stemmed from the fact that their education was in Roman law; and not only was Roman law the most revered system, but slaves were prominent in it. For the jurists' attitudes we must remember that, at least in theory, there were no slaves in territories such as the Dutch Republic, Germany, or France. …

Correspondence (Letter To The Editor), Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

In "A Comment on the Critical Method in Legal History," 6 Cardozo L. Rev. 997 (1985), Mark Tushnet responded to Alan Watson's review of his book, THE AMERICAN LAW OF SLAVERY, 1810-1860, which appeared at 91 Yale L.J. 1034 (1982). In a letter to the Editor-in-Chief of the Cardozo Law Review reproduced below, Professor Watson launches the next salvo in their ongoing debate by comparing quotes from Critical Method, THE AMERICAN LAW OF SLAVERY, the Yale book review, and other sources.

Morality, Slavery And The Jurists In The Later Roman Republic, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

The problem I wish to discuss is the moral attitude of the later Republican jurists to slavery. The prominent jurists of the time belong to the upper classes and, although it would be wrong to generalize from the jurists to other members of the aristocracy, we shall have a certain glimpse into the social attitudes of the period if we can gain a reasonably clear picture from the jurists. I will deal only with juristic discussion, and not with the statutes and edicts which concern slavery. No doubt the jurists would play a part in shaping these, but public political …